Thread: Creating a function to return 2d arrays help please

Hello,

I am trying to create a function outside of the main method which creates a 2d array based on two numbers given to it. I want to be able to run this function multiple times to create a number of arrays to be accessed later.

Code:

char *room(int xRoom, int yRoom){
      
    static char charRoom[xRoom][yRoom];       
    return charRoom;
}

At the moment it throws up compiler errors as the array length isn't constant. Am I going about what I want to do the right way or is there another? Or if I am how do I continue from this point onwards?

You will have to dynamically create the 2D array and return that.

What do you mean?

Read this link: Question 6.16

Here, run the code below as an example of why you can't do that...

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int* MyFunction(int a, int b, int c)
  {  static int array[3];
     array[0] = a;
     array[1] = b;
     array[2] = c;
     return array;  } // return a pointer.


int main (void)
  { int *a1, *a2;  // int pointers

    printf("calling a1 = MyFunction(10,20,30);\t");
    a1 = MyFunction(10,20,30);
    printf("a1 has %d %d %d\n",a1[0],a1[1],a1[2]);

    printf("calling a2 = MyFunction(100,200,300);\t");
    a2 = MyFunction(100,200,300);
    printf("a2 has %d %d %d\n",a2[0],a2[1],a2[2]);

    printf("\nLooks good, except...\t"); 
    printf("a1 now has %d %d %d\n",a1[0],a1[1],a1[2]);

    getchar();
    return 0; }